Back To the Future-Missing Scenes
by MX5
Summary: My version of missing scenes. Covers all 3 movies and read like ministories. Revised formatting-was having quite a hard time of it! Chapter 3 will be up tomorrow after a little touching up. Thanks for reviews! :)
1. Chapter 1

BTF1

_A/N: Set the night Marty first arrives at Doc's house in 1955._

"What do you think is wrong with it, Doc?" the teenager asked as Doc backed the Packard up to the trailer beside the garage and Marty tugged, latching the hitch together so the ball met the hollowed-out cavity of the metal tongue of the trailer. It clicked in place as Doc picked up the wires for the trailer's brake lights, connecting them to the car. He tested the lights as Marty picked up the heavy canvas car cover and tossed it in the backseat of the Packard.

"I can't say really until we get it back here," Doc got into the car as Marty joined him. "might be an altenator problem."

"Is that the thing which directs the power from the battery?"

"Yes." Doc didn't think that Marty was the type of boy who knew much about cars. The teen met his eyes and guessed what he was thinking.

"It was the last semester in 8th grade and I had a choice of chorus class or shop-er what they called car repair," Marty explained. "I chose shop so that I didn't have to sing."

"Makes sense." Doc sniggered a bit as he put the key in the steering column and turned the car on.

Once they were back in the garage, Doc unhitched the trailer and came inside as Marty pulled out the suitcase 1985 Doc had packed. He left it on the DeLorean's hood as he pulled out the camera and his Walkman from the passenger side seat and rooted through Doc's electrical supplies. When he found what he needed, he plugged the video camera into the TV inputs and turned it on.

"Glad I just put batteries in this sucker..." he murmured as Doc pawed through his elder self's suitcase. Doc had been ogling a Playboy magazine and muttering to himself and Marty had to hide a smirk.

"Hey Doc, come on." the teen had discovered Doc's nudie magazine stash practically when he first walked in the door of the scientist's garage about 4 years ago in 1981. Marty had purloined a few of them to look at that night in his house when everyone went to bed and spent a few hours highly entertained by the lurid photographs. To his knowledge, Doc had never found out about what he did.

After the revelation about the lightning bolt, Marty stuffed his hands in his pockets and shed his red down vest. He'd gotten so many comments about it being a life preserver that he threw it in the DeLorean's trunk so nobody would see it again. Doc was already pulling parts out of his workbench drawers, ready to start on his hastily devised plan. Marty watched halfheartedly, barely realizing how tired he was. Once Doc was on a roll with a plan, there was no stopping him no matter what time of day it was.

Near 11, Marty sat down on the red couch as he watched Doc a bit. Copernicus jumped up next to the teenager and settled down, his front paws on Marty's thigh. He sighed and put his head down on top of his paws, closing his eyes sleepily. Marty stroked the dog's head, feeling his own eyelids getting heavy as well. He leaned back and stripped off his denim jacket, pulled his suspenders off, then stretched out a bit, carefully not jostling the dog.

Flashes of Doc getting shot passed behind his eyes and Marty opened them with a little gasp, not realizing he'd been dozing for several minutes. He took several deep breaths to try to calm himself down as 1955 Doc leaned over the DeLorean and began to pound away with a hammer.

Settling back further in the couch, Marty tried calling up past happy memories with Doc. There were a few times when Doc had helped him study for science and math tests and he'd returned with good grades in all of them. With Doc helping him out, he'd raised his grade from a C to a B average and it had climbed up since then. He wasn't a straight A student by any means, but he was certainly pleasing his parents.

Marty's mom Lorraine had initially forbidden him to work for Doc, though when she saw his grades were improving, she had relented and let him stay an hour later at Doc's garage as long as the homework was kept up on. Doc had become like a father figure to Marty and it seemed to him that they both knew it. The scientist would always perk Marty up when he sensed the teen was down for any reason.

Without even realizing it, Marty drifted off to sleep with the dog still on his thigh.

Around midnight, Doc paused in his work, conceding that he needed to go to the hardware store in the morning to buy more parts for his project. He set down the ratchet and hammer, turning to the living area of the garage to ask Marty if he was tired.

Turning off the overhead light illuminating the DeLorean, he closed the gullwing door and walked into the living area where he saw Marty asleep on the couch with Copernicus next to him. The scientist paused again then turned off the lamp at the end table where Marty was. The teenager shifted in his sleep slightly, his expression darkening a bit like he was distressed in his dreams. Doc was inwardly fascinated, as he'd read all about the science of sleep and he knew that Marty was dreaming now. His eyes under his lids were moving frantically and the expression of distress deepened his features until Doc got concerned.

Debating whether to wake him, Doc sat down in the armchair for a moment. Marty gasped and woke up, covered in a cold sweat, his heart pounding in his ears. The teen blinked and his blue eyes settled on Doc who had started to stand up just as Marty focused on him.

"Marty? Are you all right?" Marty tried to wipe the cold sweat off his face, disturbing Copernicus a bit. The dog jumped off the couch and went straight for his master's lap.

"Ugh," Marty sighed. "I'm all right, Doc. Just a bad dream."

The scientist didn't look convinced at that statement but chose not to pursue the matter. "Well then, let's get up to the house. Come on, pup." he motioned for the dog, who loyally followed his master as Doc shut off the lights and locked up the garage. Marty followed listlessly as Doc entered his house and showed Marty where the guest bedroom was.

It was an average-sized bedroom with cherrywood door molding and furniture made out of maple. Doc fished out a pair of old pajamas and handed them to Marty, who looked at them with disgust. Oblivious to his new friend's uncomfortable feelings, he opened up the linen closet and handed the teenager a never-opened toothbrush and some toothpaste.

"I try to be prepared," Doc explained. "my father was a Boy Scout."

He sure wasn't prepared the night the Libyans came after him, Marty thought bitterly as he smiled and thanked Doc.

"My room is just across the hall here if you have any problems." Doc bade him goodnight and disappeared into his own room, leaving the door ajar for the dog.

The pajamas were too big for him as he suspected, so Marty threw them back in the bureau and took off only his jeans and button-up shirt. The teenager checked out his own personal bathroom and had to smile as he saw the countertop was made out of granite and there was a claw-footed bathtub complete with a ring on the ceiling for a wraparound curtain with shower apparatus. Marty pulled a few towels out of the linen closet and hung them up so they were ready for him in the morning.

Climbing into bed, Marty was about to turn the light off when he saw his door creak open a few inches. Copernicus came into his room timidly, his tail wagging hesitantly. Marty smiled and patted the bed, permitting the dog to jump up. Copernicus did so, giving Marty's face a grateful lick. Getting comfortable, Marty turned out the light and snuggled up with the dog, the reassuring presence of whom made Marty more relaxed and he fell asleep right away.

At 8 AM the next morning, Doc woke up, stretched, and commenced his morning routine. When he was ready for the day, he knocked on Marty's door and received no answer. Curiosity overcame him, as he'd never had anyone stay in the mansion as a guest before, and peeked into the room. Seeing that Marty was still sound asleep, he boldly stepped into the room until he was right beside the teenager and his dog. Copernicus gave his master a halfhearted wag, still too sleepy to do much else. Doc smiled down at his pet and let his gaze transfer over to Marty.

The scientist watched Marty sleep for a long moment, noticing with a little dismay that he hadn't worn the pajamas Doc had pulled out for him last night. They were too big for him as Doc thought they might be, so he wasn't inclined to press the issue. He needed to go shopping for Marty anyway and he mentally began to make a list of what to get. He took out a small legal pad and a pen and picked up Marty's jeans, making a note of the size, doing the same with the shirt and sneakers.

Marty was lying on his back with Copernicus lying down on one of his arms. The dog had positioned himself so that his head was near enough to Marty's so he could give him a good lick without effort. Doc reached over and smoothed out the bedsheet a bit, suddenly feeling a bit protective of Marty while he was asleep. Perhaps it was the vulnerability Marty projected while he was sleeping, Doc supposed. He didn't think much of it now as there were jobs to do.

"Want breakfast, pup?" Doc asked Copernicus in a low voice. "Come on then." the dog hopped down and trailed his master out to the kitchen.

Once he was finished with breakfast, Doc decided to let Marty sleep in. He'd had a long day yesterday and besides, from what Marty had told him, he was still recovering from a concussion. The scientist jotted down a quick note and left it on the table in case Marty woke up and didn't know where he was. Copernicus whined for a few moments after Doc left in the Packard, but he went back up to Marty and cuddled with him again.

Returning successfully from his outing, Doc picked up a few shopping bags and brought them up to Marty's room. It was almost 11 and Marty hadn't moved an inch from when Doc had checked on him earlier. Remembering Marty had a concussion, he fetched a small brown leather bag with his father's medical instruments in it and returned to the teenager's room.

Marty woke up, feeling like his right arm was being crushed. He opened up his eyes lazily to find that Doc had put a blood pressure cuff on his arm and was now using the hand pump to inflate it.

"Doc, what are you doing?" he mumbled sleepily.

"I'm checking your blood pressure. Shhh." Doc pressed a stethoscope disk just below the cuff and put the ends in his ears. Feeling like an invalid, Marty watched and knew that no protesting would get him out of Doc's examination of him.

"Your blood pressure is completely normal," Doc informed him. "lie down, I need to listen to your heart."

"Doc, I'm not dead," Marty did as he was instructed. "you should have done this yesterday."

"Marty," Doc's tone was stern and Marty had heard that tone from his friend several times over the years. "you suffered a mild concussion yesterday when you were hit and you were unconscious for how long? Nine hours?"

"So they say." there was still some mild pain in his head from that episode.

"Be glad I'm doing this now," Doc kept a smirk to himself. "if the accident happened here, I would have no choice but to wake you every 2 hours and ask you the same questions in repetition."

"Why?"

"To make sure you suffered no brain damage or memory loss." Doc listened to Marty's heart, checking the pulse rate. He examined Marty's eyes to make sure the pupils were of equal size and the teenager passed the examination.

"All right, you can get up now. Take it easy today." his friend cautioned as Marty sat up. "I got you new clothes you can wear." he indicated the shopping bags.

"All right, this'll be interesting." Marty said slowly as Doc gathered up his bag and left the room.

Marty took a shower and pulled out tan colored chinos and high top canvas sneakers in black with a white toe. He chose a white sleeveless shirt and put the items of clothing on. Copernicus hopped down from the bed, lashing his tail and looking up at Marty with his big brown eyes. Marty laughed and patted the dog.

"You know how to mooch with your eyes, you know that?" they left the room and started downstairs to see Doc in the living room. "So Doc, what are we doing today?"

Doc looked up from his notebook where he was drawing out his plan for the DeLorean. "I honestly would like to know how a man like me came to know a teenager like you."

Marty grinned and sat on the couch. "How much time have you got?"

"I don't need specifics, please!" Doc demanded. "Can you give me a general overview? It would help if we're to spend the next week together at least." he added.

"All right, I can work with that." Marty thought for a moment. "My mom forbade me to have anything to do with you and being a teen like I am, I got curious, you know? I sneaked into where you lived and you found me. Instead of being mad, you told me you'd seen me about town a lot and wondered if I would like a part time job."

"I did?"

"Yeah and you didn't mind I sneaked in. I think you were glad of the company. Everyone called you a weirdo and labeled you as dangerous but I didn't believe any of it. Besides, I just wanted to irk my mom." Marty gave him a crooked smile. "Besides, it worked! I had a job with fifty bucks a week and you let me look at your record collection."

"What did your mom think of all this?"

Amused, Marty sniggered loudly. "She didn't like it at first, then she kind of lightened up a bit when she saw I was returning home in normal shape. She also lectured me about being responsible and saving my cash. You helped me with my homework, my grades went up, so she never bothered me about working for you again."

Doc smirked. So many people thought he was loony tunes and he was just as sane as the next person on the street. Popular misconception and if people wanted to subscribe to popular misconceptions, they were losing out on what a good guy he really was. Doc warmed up to Marty even more now, gratified that he looked beyond his reputation and befriended him. Marty watched him and grinned. "I don't regret your friendship to me, Doc. Not one bit." he cuffed him on the arm as he got up.

"Yo, what's for lunch?"

Doc jumped up. "Damn, I forgot to go to the grocery store!"

While Doc was getting his errands done, Marty looked over the book collection in the library and selected a book titled Dracula by Bram Stoker. Sitting down on the leather couch, Marty opened up the book, allowed Copernicus to sit in his lap, and began to read.

At around 4 that afternoon, Doc came in with several bags of groceries. Copernicus woke Marty up by leaping off his lap and barking. Groaning, the teenager rubbed his eyes as he realized he'd been sleeping for the past 2 hours. Blearily he got up and bringing the book with him, watched Doc unpack the bags and put items away as he picked up a piece of paper and slid it into the book to mark his place.

"Marty, are you all right?" Doc threw the bags away and looked over to see Marty rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah, Doc. You just woke me up from a nap, that's all." he grunted.

"Sorry about that."

"It's all right." the teenager muttered. "I feel kinda low today anyway." flashes of Doc's murder shot through his mind every time he closed his eyes and it wore him down.

"Still feeling the effects from the concussion?"

"Yeah," Marty admitted. "my head still hurts some."

"After supper, you go straight up to bed and I'll give you some medicine to help," Doc suggested as he wrestled a package from the last bag. "sound all right?"

Marty suspected the medicine would make him drowsy, not that he didn't already feel that way. "That's all right, Doc."

As promised, Doc gave Marty some medicine to help with his head and as Marty suspected, it knocked him cold for several hours. He was already in the new checked pajamas Doc had gotten him that day and Marty tried to read for about 15 minutes after he took the medicine but it was no use.

Two hours later, Doc came in to check on his friend. The scientist checked Marty's heartbeat and pulse in his wrist as Copernicus licked Marty's face and whined.

"It's all right, Copernicus," he soothed his pet. "Marty's just sleeping."

Marty stirred and groaned at Doc's voice. "Doc?" he croaked.

"Marty, go back to sleep."

Marty's eyes flickered open for a moment. " ... 'm dizzy."

"That's just the medicine. Not to worry, Marty. I'm here to look after you this week." he really meant it too. Doc had already begun to think of Marty like a surrogate son. Marty gave a vague smile and drifted back to sleep.

Doc smiled as well, silently promising Marty that he would get him home.

* * *

Monday night

"Science fiction theater..." Marty mused, walking home towards Doc's house, a smirk growing on his face as he walked.

Marty opened up the door to Doc's garage and walked in, a curious little smirk on his face. Doc poked his head up from where he was looking at the time circuits for the DeLorean.

"How'd things go today? Did he ask her out?"

"Not yet, Doc."

"Damn!" the scientist smacked his hand down on the hood and swore as he drew it away, forgetting the car was made from stainless steel panels. "What is it going to take for him to work up the nerve to ask a girl out? It should be astronomically simple!"

Marty laughed. "Not necessarily, Doc. I was a nervous wreck before I asked my girlfriend out for the first time. She was more than understanding about the whole dating thing and said yes."

"I suppose you'd be right about that." Doc admitted. "I never had much experience with the opposite sex."

Marty shrugged. He could see that easily in Doc's eccentric personality. He didn't think any girl especially in the fifties would find Doc very endearing. The teenager knew that stereotypes ruled in those days though the teen crowd was doing their best to smash them down. Crossing over to the kitchenette, he got himself a snack and sat down, playing chess with Copernicus for about 30 minutes.

Finally, around suppertime, Marty helped Doc make supper, then as they were cleaning up in the kitchenette, Doc noticed Marty had a weird smirk on his face.

"What's on your mind, Marty?"

"Oh, I think I have an idea for how to convince my dad to ask out my mom," Marty set the last plate in the drying rack. "He's a big nerd, likes the science fiction stuff, what we call sci-fi in my decade. He told me that nobody on earth would be able to convince him to ask my mom to the dance."

"So you'll assume an alien persona for this?" Doc asked as Marty crossed to the DeLorean and pulled out his yellow radiation suit.

"Wouldn't be hard to convince him to ask out my mom in this outfit. When I first landed, old man Peabody thought I was an alien." he pulled out the hood and put it on. Doc rolled his eyes and sniggered as Copernicus started barking. Marty removed the hood and laughed.

"Hey Copernicus, it's me!" the dog sniffed his hand and barked a puppy bark this time.

"Good idea, kid. I'll drive you and make sure you have a fast getaway in case something comes up." he volunteered.

Marty barely heard him as he combed through Doc's suitcase, wondering what other items he could come up with that would scare his dad. Together, he and Doc set the plan for midnight. The teenager sprawled out on Doc's red couch with the dog again, engrossed in the Bram Stoker book.

Swinging down into the Packard, Marty remarked on how the chloroform had worked well as Doc started up the engine and drove out of the driveway. When they arrived home, Doc wanted to take another look at the videotape Marty had made. He asked Marty if he wanted to see it too and Marty had paled considerably until Doc had thought he was going to faint. The teen shook his head no, said he was going to bed, and beckoned to the dog. Copernicus had followed, sensing that someone was in need of his doggie comfort.

Once in bed, Marty put aside the Dracula book and stroked the dog's furry head, remembering the time when he had come down sick with tonsillitis and his mom had to call Doc and tell him that Marty wasn't coming in that week. Doc had understood and when Marty had his tonsils out, Doc had come to visit him. Marty was about 15 at the time and going through some peer pressure at school. Doc had counseled him through it and offered to talk whenever Marty needed it. Marty had thought of his working for Doc as working and counseling sessions in one, schoolwork and emotional. Doc really understood where Marty was coming from and he always treated Marty like an adult.

_After he'd awakened following the operation, Marty had found himself in a private room with cards and flowers from his friends that told him to get well soon. When his vision cleared and he was able to think somewhat, he saw Doc sitting nearby his bed, reading an electronics magazine._

_The scientist had looked up and smiled at seeing Marty awake. He came closer and began to talk. "Marty, I'm glad you're awake. Your mother called me 4 hours ago and said the surgery was successful. I've only been in here for about half an hour."_

_Marty was about to attempt to speak when Doc interrupted his thoughts. "Don't talk, Marty. Your throat is bound to be sore and talking will just make it worse. I've got paper and pen if you really want to talk, per se."_

_Marty had nodded gratefully. Doc always seemed to know him better than anyone else. He listened on as Doc began talking about his work, Einstein, and random other things that engaged the teen's mind and took it off of the pain he was in. By the time George had showed up, Marty was about to fall asleep and Doc was just about to leave. He greeted George warmly, told Marty to rest, and left._

All that was on Marty's mind now as he tried to sleep and wondered what would happen when he got back to his present time. During the walk into Hill Valley after stashing the DeLorean days ago, he had gotten emotional a few times but forced himself to think of the good times with his friend.

He tried doing that now, of Doc teaching him how to drive standard for his learner's permit and various other things until sleep finally caught up with him. Copernicus licked his hand and gave off a grumbling sound, causing Marty to faintly smile in his sleep.

Doc got up at his usual time around 8 a.m. and looked in on Marty. He was still asleep and Copernicus was still at his side. The scientist beckoned for the dog and he came willingly. Feeding his dog, Doc wondered for a moment why Copernicus was so glued to Marty's side recently. He knew dogs had a sixth sense when it came to human emotion and though Marty didn't look it, he seemed to be in need of a dog's moral support.

Copernicus chomped and slobbered away in the corner as Doc made coffee and sat down at the table. Marty came in, not looking well rested at all. He was a shade pale and there were bags under his eyes as he mumbled a good morning and sat down next to Doc.

"Marty, you don't look very well," Doc told him, giving him some coffee. "do you feel all right?"

The teenager yawned. "I'm all right, Doc. I didn't sleep well last night."

Doc let it be. Any more inquiries would irritate Marty and he knew the after effects of the concussion were completely gone by now. "Better hurry up or you'll be late for school."

"Aw, Doc..."

"No, you know the plan," Doc gently scolded. "off with you now."

* * *

Saturday night before the dance

Marty underlined DO NOT OPEN UNTIL 1985 with the calligraphy pen and waited for the ink to dry before folding up the letter and sealing it. He picked up the pen and ink and returned them to Lou with a mumbled word of thanks, then while Doc was fiddling around with his wallet, trying to find the permit, he slipped it into Doc's coat pocket. Casting a backwards glance at the DeLorean and Doc, Marty climbed into the Packard.

The 1941Packard was an automatic and Marty found his left foot looking for the clutch. With a mildly irritated smile, he set off for Lorraine's house.

His mind still on Doc, he lost himself in his thoughts again as he drove. Marty had some bad times in school with peer pressure and one incident was particularly vivid in his mind.

_He'd come into Doc's garage with an embarrassed flush to his face and the scientist had noted that immediately. Seeing as how Marty was so distracted he'd set the dishwasher on a longer cycle than usual, he pigeonholed Marty and asked what was bothering him._

_"Some guy at school was harassing me Doc, that's all." he grunted. Doc knew that wasn't right. Marty had been harassed plenty of times and he'd never let it bother him._

_"There's more to it isn't there?" Doc was more intuitive to people's emotions than one might think. Marty shrugged his shoulders._

_"All right, Doc. One of the guys at school was bragging about how many girls he'd, er, slept with and started asking me if I'd done it yet. I told him I wasn't going to rush it and the girls would like that better, then he started in making fun of me."_

_Doc nodded. He'd faced the same thing once upon a time._

_"Some girls nearby overheard and said they would... be my first. I didn't want any of that, then all the guys and girls started making fun of me. I tried to ignore 'em like you said, but it just got so bad. To make things worse, Strickland came over and started whining at me because I was causing a scene in the hallways before class. He always calls me a slacker and all that crap, but it just seemed to cut deeper than usual today. I cut my last class and came here." Einstein wiggled his muzzle under Marty's hand and Marty smiled, caressing the dog._

_"Well, Marty, I think you did the right thing today. You didn't get into any kind of trouble and you came to the one person you could trust." Doc announced, cuffing him on the shoulder. "Will the school call your parents if they find out you cut class?"_

_"If they did, nobody would be home." Marty answered. "Dave's working, Linda's doing something, and Mom and Dad are working until 6 tonight."_

_"All right." Doc stood up. "The best thing for you to do is be distracted. You'll be surprised how often it helps you."_

_Marty grinned. "What do you want me to do first, Doc?"_

Steering the Packard into Lorraine's driveway, he honked once and shifted the car into park. His teenage mother came out wearing a peach colored dress and white heels with a white cloth shawl over her shoulders. Lorraine got into the car and greeted Marty warmly, to which he replied nervously, shifted the car into reverse and backed down the driveway.

During the ride, he was too nervous to really respond to any of Lorraine's quips and sallies, so he let her talk on and on as he concentrated on driving.

* * *

Lone Pine Mall

"Well, I figured, what the hell?"

Marty rolled his eyes as Doc got up and he did likewise. The place looked very much the same except the name of the mall was different. "I thought it was the Twin Pines mall, Doc."

The scientist looked confused. "Oh no. It's been the Lone Pine mall ever since they built it. Funny story goes with that actually. Old Eustace Peabody swore that he had an alien visitor one night which took out one of his pine trees."

"I bet," the teenager smirked as he petted Einstein. "should we refuel the car before the cops come?"

"Great scott!" Doc cried. "Back into your radiation suit-where's the DeLorean?"

"Stalled out in the town square again."

"Thought I fixed that." Doc and Marty got into his van and they parked it at his garage. Walking to where the DeLorean was sitting, they refueled the plutonium and were in the car as sirens flashed by. Marty heard rich Libyan cursing and yelling as Doc checked the engine of the car. Einstein sat in the passenger seat with the teenager, licking his hands.

"So what's the issue this time, Doc?"

"The altenator isn't giving it enough power. Damn!" he wiped his greasy fingers on a rag in his pocket. "I'll get that replaced in the future so this doesn't happen again." he tried the car and it started up.

Driving into Lyon Estates, Doc swung widely and nearly took out a hedge as he passed into Marty's driveway. Marty swore and hung onto the dog for dear life. His friend's reckless driving often scared him, even though nobody was around at that late hour.

He popped open the door and asked Doc a few things, shaking his hand and patting Einstein goodbye. He waved with his skateboard as the DeLorean accelerated and vanished. Barely muffling a yawn with his hand, he opened up the fence and left his skateboard underneath his window. Crawling in, he yawned again, kicked his shoes off, pulled his suspenders down, and collapsed on his bed.

His alarm woke him at 10:28 the next morning and sitting up, he briefly wondered if his trip was all a nightmare. Putting on his sneakers, he caught sight of the demo tape he made a week before. Jennifer told him it was great and she wouldn't lie. He figured he'd send it in so she would stop nagging him about it rather than the fear of getting a rejection letter. The teenager put the cassette in a brown envelope and wrote out the record company's address. Walking down the main hall, he hoisted up his suspender straps again and looked around.

END OF PART 1


	2. Chapter 2

BTF2

_Hill Valley, 2015_

Doc touched down in a vacant back alley in 2015. He pulled out Einstein's leash, walked his faithful dog, then looked around to see what he should do first. The scientist saw an ad for Wilson's Hover Conversions and though he winced at the cost, he'd always wanted to pilot a flying car. Einstein was left in a fancy suspended animation kennel with the other dogs, then Doc wondered about what he would do for money.

Finding a free ATM, he slipped in his card and punched his pin number in. ATMs were just coming into vogue in the 1980s and he knew he would not have a problem. When the number of his balance plus interest over the past 30 years flashed up onscreen, Doc gasped. The total amount was a little more than 10 million dollars!

"Glad those investments I made paid off." he muttered, memorizing the amount. Doc had invested in electronics including home movie cameras, TVs and computers, and his family's fortune added another 5 million. He didn't think that the local businesses would accept cash now so he signed out of his account without withdrawing anything. Upon leaving, he saw a small rectangular tab with small printing underneath it labeled BIOMETRIC ACCESS. A drawing of a thumb was sketched next to the receptacle.

Taking the DeLorean to Wilson's Hover Conversions, he parked on a rooftop awning similar to the Texaco gas station nearby. Doc secretly disabled the time circuits and asked for a full hover conversion plus maintenance to be done on his car. The mechanic said it would be done tomorrow morning and Doc thanked the man as he left, pleased with the service already. He went shopping next, picking out a few outfits that he liked.

After lunch, Doc found a voice-activated information kiosk and requested information on rejuvenation clinics. He found the best rated one which was called Everglades and set out for it.

Everglades was in a quiet section of town, the front of the building was built in Second Empire style. Two Corinthian columns flanked the entrance as he went in, the doors automatically opening and closing for him. The reception room was painted in a medium green and several framed pictures of before and after rejuvenation procedures dotted the walls. A small koi pond was in one corner, several goldfish were swimming around in it.

Doc took the forms on the electronic device called a tablet, was instructed on how to use it, then he went and sat down. It took a few minutes and several tries to input his information, but he got the hang of how the tablets worked, filling out the paperwork-now tabletwork in good time.

About 10 minutes after his information was submitted, a doctor called him to the procedure room and told him to lie down on the exam table. A machine that looked like it was from Star Trek slid over him on a curved track so it encompassed him completely. Doc heard several noises while the scanner engaged in its task, then in a matter of minutes, slid back with a pneumatic hiss. The doctor checked the printout, nodded, then told Doc what they intended to do to him. A precursory mask was case of his old face at his request, lest Marty freak out and not realize that it was his friend.

Doc was taken to the surgery room where he signed off on anesthesia and had to strip down and put on a hospital johnny. He laid down, trying to remain calm as a robotic arm popped up from the side of the OR table and brandished a syringe filled with a milky white fluid. One of the doctors put a nasal cannula on Doc and started an IV of antibiotics as the robotic arm injected the sedative into the scientist's arm.

The next day, Doc woke up in a recovery room with his mask already put on his face. He was discharged and he went to pick up the DeLorean. As part of the service deal, he received a few lessons in flying the car and he paid them well for the work they had done. The DeLorean had needed a new altenator, the brake lines had to be fixed, and one tire had a slow leak that was also fixed up. The tech had also showed him how to use a thick silver what looked like sunglasses, molded so they were all one piece and with a little notch so he could fit them over the bridge of his nose. The glasses had a small light up compass in the upper corner of the left side, a small alert button on the opposite side that would light up if the police were nearby.

For lunch, Doc went into a place called Tim Horton's and borrowed a laptop from a laptop rental place just across the street. He went onto the Internet, googling Marty's name. Checking the past issues of the local newspaper, Doc was distraught over Marty junior's association with Griff Tannen's gang and how Marty junior had gotten arrested. Marty's daughter Marlene tried to break him out of jail but she was arrested and incarcerated as well.

Backtracking even more, Doc discovered Marty would get into a car accident, break his hand, give up on his music, and sink into a deep depression. The cause of the accident was drag racing on a highway and Doc had no doubt that someone had goaded Marty into it.

The scientist did not want to wait around for the future to be the present and let Marty's life deteriorate like he'd just read. He paid for his lunch and made a quick stop at the local clothing store, picking up a pair of Nikes, tie dye colored trucker's hat, and a red and black jacket. He then jumped into the DeLorean. Initially he set it for 5 minutes after he left Marty, but realized the teenager would need a full night's sleep. He keyed in 10:35, remembering that Marty liked to sleep late on the weekends.

* * *

"I was framed!" Griff Tannen yelled as the police cuffed him and wrestled him and his gang through the door of the courthouse. Marty smirked, gave a little wave, then saw a sign with STRICKLAND ELECTRONICS emblazoned on the front door. He saw several small looking black rectangular devices, something that looked like a computer but was consolidated into two panels, and several other odd looking things to his 1980s eyes.

He entered the shop, seeing a small LCD screen with a guy's face on it staring at him. "Hello and welcome to Strickland Electronics. Someone will be with you soon."

"Er, thanks." Marty turned to a shelf which was loaded with things called tablet computers. He checked out the one on display and hesitantly touched the screen. The LCD display rippled like water where he touched and an icon with a lock button appeared along with directions SWIPE TO UNLOCK. Marty dragged his finger across the screen and the display showed several icons including something called Google Chrome.

"Can I help you?" a girl dressed in an A line pencil skirt that was black was staring at him. Her nametag read Chelsea and she had teased back electric blue hair. Her shirt was black and white striped and she was wearing 4 inch high heels that Marty thought were extremely painful even to look at.

"Yeah. I'm not from around here and I wondered what these tablet things actually are."

Chelsea gave him a smile. "Right on!" she gave him the spiel of how laptops had become cumbersome (Marty supposed that was what he saw in the store window), and computer technicians developed tablet computers. She walked him through the Google App Store where he could download games, books, etc, and showed him social networking like Facebook and Twitter.

"Is this a laptop?" he pointed to a small rectangle with a keyboard on one side and a monitor screen on the other. Chelsea took him over to it.

"This is a Toshiba Satellite laptop. One of the best around." she said proudly. "It has the new soft-touch keys and has 8 gigabytes of memory on a 1 terrabyte hard drive." Marty watched her use the touchpad for something called a mouse and maneuver around on the computer like it was second nature.

Chelsea was extolling the virtues of the other item of Marty's interest, a cell phone, when the back door opened and closed. An old man in a wheelchair rolled in with a scowl on his face. Marty recognized Mr. Strickland, the bane of his high school existance.

"I thought your father told you to wait until he came back before you sold something!" the voice was a little raspier than usual but it was definitely Strickland.

"Grandpa, I'm just showing the devices to this young man," Chelsea cast Marty a desperate look that clearly said to play along with her. "he's making an informed decision and will come back later to buy."

Strickland cast a beady eye at Marty. "Is that true?"

"Yes sir."

"In that case, you can read the boxes yourself and make a decision! Shop online like everyone else! Chelsea, I need you to help me. Wind it up!" he turned his chair and went away. Chelsea's face was slightly flushed as she looked at Marty.

"I'm sorry. He's always been so cranky."

"No problems," Marty assured her. "grandfathers are not always easy to get along with. He used to work at the high school and make everyone's life miserable."

"So I've heard."

"Chelsea!" her grandfather's voice boomed. Marty gave her a smile, wished her good luck, then left the shop. Still clutching the silver colored bag with the sports book in it, he stood by the Cafe 80s and waited for Doc.

"Marty! Up here!" Doc waved from the DeLorean.

* * *

"If you need me, I'll be back in my lab, dismantling this thing!"

"Right." Marty shut the door and Doc shifted the car in reverse, backing down the driveway and cruising down the road as he turned onto the main drag. Einstein settled down in the passenger seat with a grunt as Doc looked around the town and noted an unusual number of bikers motoring around that night.

"Great scott!" Doc saw chalk outlines of 4 bodies on the road and no police were in sight. He bypassed the town square but caught a glimpse of the former courthouse and saw a marquee, big and gaudy with bright yellow lights spelling out TANNEN'S PLEASURE PARADISE. Einstein whined and growled as some of the bikers shouted. Doc shushed him and narrowly avoided a trash can fire as he hustled over to the town library.

"Something's gone wrong, Einie," the scientist got out of the car. "stay here and I'll be right back." he shut the door with the key in his pocket, hovered around the front door of the library, seeing that it was all shut. Determined to get answers and with the Internet at least 10 years in the future, he broke in, kicking apart the rotted wood boards over one window.

Climbing in, he made for the current events section where past copies of the Hill Valley newspaper were in leather bound volumes. Flicking on a flashlight he kept in the DeLorean's glove compartment, he picked the volumes from 1950 up until the current time. Stowing them in the trunk of the car, he started it back up and made for his old garage.

Einstein jumped out of the car as Doc caught a flash of silver before he was about to shut the door. He cursed and saw the sports almanac bag that Marty had previously. Marty couldn't have brought it with him, Doc had thrown it away and Marty was in his sight the entire time. Something else caught his eye and he saw a gold colored fist on top of a black painted cane. The wood was broken off at an angle, indicating that its owner had trouble taking it out of the car.

Doc stared at it as alarm bells rang in his head. Biff! He'd overheard them talking, stolen the book and the time machine, gone back in time to give the book to himself and that was how he'd gotten filthy rich. The scientist went around lighting candles that were all over the place, put the newspaper volumes down and began to page through the archives, looking for evidence to support his theory.

He soon had it. Biff had won at horse racing on his 21st birthday and he'd had a long winning streak that continued on for several years. The bully had his own oil company, owned several professional sports teams, and various estates around the world. Biff had even developed his own line of beers, mostly stouts, browns, reds, and lagers that won prizes in international tasting challenges. Doc had to wonder if most of the judges were bribed with money by Biff's lackeys.

Einstein whined once and Doc hugged his dog to him, finding an old newspaper nearby which was dated 4 months ago with the headline EMMETT BROWN COMMITTED.

"Great scott!" flipping the pages of the 1970s era archived Hill Valley Telegraphs, he came across Marty's father's picture LOCAL AUTHOR MURDERED was boldly printed.

After a few minutes of reading, he glanced at his watch. Almost 3 hours had gone by since they'd arrived back in this hellhole universe and he had to find Marty. His friend was prone to acting out while he was emotional and this would be no different. Doc read the obituary notice and saw it was Oak Park cemetery where George McFly had been laid to rest.

"Come on, Einie!" the dog happily got into the car as Doc did. He hightailed it over to the cemetery, opening the gullwing door as the wind started to pick up. He left the headlights on as he picked up his ears towards someone in the cemetery already.

It was Marty. Doc could see him by the red t-shirt he was wearing.

"Please God, no!" Marty cried. "This can't be happening! This can't be-" he turned and gasped as Doc's shadow fell on the tombstone. Doc's heart wrenched at the sight of his friend in such grief and wanted to help him, but he had to fill Marty in on the details of what was going on.

"I'm afraid it is happening, Marty! All of it!" he shouted over the wind.

"Doc!"

"When I learned about your father, I figured you'd come here." he walked up to Marty as a cold breeze blew past, making Doc's hair stand up.

"Then you know what happened to him?" Marty joined him, still training his flashlight on the tombstone. "You know what happened March 16th, 1973?"

Doc wished he had something happy to tell Marty but he wouldn't lie.

"Yes Marty, I know."

* * *

"Something inconspicuous!" Doc clutched the money case for a moment then put it in the DeLorean's trunk. He pulled out a tin pail along with his travel toolcase and set to work, pulling out the digital display screen and starting to tinker with the wiring behind the panel.

Around mid afternoon, Marty called on the walkie-talkie to check in with Doc. About an hour later, he called to tell Doc that he was trapped in Biff's garage and asked Doc to break him out.

"I can't bring the DeLorean out in the daylight, but I'll think of something!" Doc promised. He put the walkie-talkie in his pocket, took out some money, then picked up his long black duster coat and put it on. The scientist hitched a ride into town and asked to be let out at a local bike store. He selected a bright red bike, bought a hat to cover up his unruly hair, then had an early supper at a small place off the main drag.

By the time he was in Biff's neighborhood it had gotten dark and he paused while biking to check the local map he'd gotten earlier. Narrowly being missed by a Ford convertible, Doc saw the house number and pulled in, skidding the bike to a stop and calling for Marty. A momentary fear came into Doc's mind, one of Marty being found by Biff and gotten beaten up bloody by the bully. Often times Marty had no comprehension of the consequences of his actions, especially if someone had called him a name. Several instances of detention had resulted because of his recklessness.

"Damn! Where is that kid?!" Doc growled, ripping the tag off of his hat and leaving the garage. Without even thinking about it, he headed for the town square and narrowly avoided a run in with his past self. He headed back to the DeLorean, the bike making it much easier. Since darkness fell, it was all right for him to fly the car and that was exactly what he did.

* * *

"...and this one's for my car!" Biff kicked Marty hard in the ribcage a second time and Marty was sure that he heard something break just then. The bully left him alone in the parking lot, jumping into his Ford and peeling out in the driveway. Marty saw a flash of black streak across his vision and inwardly hoped that whatever Biff had injured would stay hidden until the almanac business was over.

Getting up, he nearly keeled over on the spot, but he forced himself to ascend the steps to the roof. Every step was quite painful and he felt blood trickling down from his lower lip. Involuntarily as he'd been hit with the door, Marty had bitten his lip and he was reaping the consequences for it now. He grabbed the iron banister and hoisted himself up the last few steps, crossing over to Doc and leaning on the side of the DeLorean with the back of his hand wiping off the blood.

"Doc!" he panted, seeing black creeping into the edges of his vision. "I blew it! Biff nailed me and got away with the book. It's all my fault, Doc!"

Doc tugged the last of the banner rope free from under the DeLorean's driver side axle and turned to face Marty. "Never mind that now, which way did he go?" he walked closer to Marty and saw the blood on his first finger. "Great scott, Marty! What happened to you?"

"I got hit in the head," he said, ashamed a bit of getting kicked by Biff and hoping to keep that part a secret from Doc. "some yahoo exited the dance too fast and winged me." he didn't dare mention that the yahoo was himself.

"Some yahoo, eh?" Doc clearly didn't believe him. The scientist picked up a penlight from the DeLorean's dashboard and examined Marty's pupils. "They look all right to me, but I want you to go to a doctor to be on the safe side."

"What about the almanac?"

"It can wait! This is a time machine after all!" Marty eased himself into the passenger seat and Doc got into the car, turning the time circuits on. "Doc, just let me get the almanac! You know in Hell Valley the medical hospitals will have it out for me!"

Doc knew that was true. Biff had his thumb on the pulse of the world and no doubt a doctor taking bribes would kill Marty if he had a chance. The teenager's future was severely limited and even a lookalike of him would most likely be killed as well. He swore inwardly, smacking the steering wheel with frustration as he debated on what to do.

"Doc?" Marty did look fine but Doc knew better. Over the years, Marty had been adept at covering up his illnesses and injuries from the scientist and Doc knew that he would have to tend to Marty as soon as this was over.

"All right," Doc switched on the flying circuits. "which way did he go?"

"East towards the River Road tunnel."

"Right!" he turned off the time circuits as he accelerated and downshifted the car.

While Marty was getting the almanac back from Biff, Doc began to make plans for taking his wounded friend to the best hospital in the future. It had to be Massachusetts General in the year 2050. They had gotten very good points from several institutions and more accolades than he could count. Cost would not be any problem, as Doc knew his funds were astronomical even in the future. He pulled out the banner rope from the footwell where he'd left it and tied it to the steering column of the DeLorean. The scientist heard the rumbling of the Ford's engine and looked to see a pair of headlights baring down on Marty. He accelerated the DeLorean to the end of the tunnel and tossed down the banner rope, hoping that Marty would see it and grab it in time.

"Go Doc, go!"

"Hang on, Marty!" the scientist called, operating the clutch and shifting the car to 4th gear. Once they were a safe distance away from Biff and his car, the two landed in a grassy field on the outskirts of town.

Thunder rumbled overhead and Doc pulled out a lighter from the DeLorean's glove compartment, bringing out a metal pail from the trunk. Marty knelt down beside him and tried to look alert, though Doc saw he was pale and shaking.

"And we say goodbye to this misbegotten book!" Doc set it on fire and they watched as the flames consumed the paper in almost no time at all. Once the almanac had been reduced to a cinder by the fire, the rain began to fall. Marty blinked owlishly as Doc pulled at him, steering him towards the DeLorean.

"Doc, I don't feel well at all." he managed to say as Doc opened up the gullwing door.

"Is it your head?" Marty sat down in the passenger side weakly, his eyes opened only halfway. "I have some aspirin in here if you need it." he began to rifle through the DeLorean's first-aid kit.

"Not my head..."

"Then where?"

"Here... Augh!" Marty cried out involuntarily, causing Doc to nearly fall backwards. The teenager's hand clutched at his belly and Doc raised the shirt with an inkling of what he was going to see.

"Let me look, Marty." in no condition to argue, Marty let Doc hike up his red t-shirt and take a look.

"Great scott!" there were several black and blue areas at random, but in the center was a big purple bruise with tinges of red around it. Doc knew that Marty had been struck with blunt force and he only had to ask "Tannen?" and he got a nod in reply.

".. 'm scared, Doc," Marty mumbled as Doc got into the car and set the time circuits. "what's gonna happen to me?" he furrowed his brow in pain as another spasm exploded through him.

"You will get fixed up, Marty. I promise you that." the scientist accelerated to 88.

Two hours later, Doc was sitting in a waiting room near the ambulatory surgery unit. He had rushed Marty in and in an odd show of good timing, Marty had collapsed as soon as he'd hit the gurney. The doctor on call had promptly interrogated Doc on what had happened, given Marty the precursory physical exam, and set him up with some immediate IV fluid therapy to combat the shock. An x-ray was obtained which showed a hemoperitoneum, or blood in the abdominal cavity.

"One of his internal blood vessels was ruptured by blunt force trauma," the doctor had explained. "his body is trying to stop the bleeding by hemorrhaging, but that's getting nowhere." Doc could only agree. Marty was rushed into emergency surgery so they could drain the abscess clear of blood, fix the bleeding, and make sure that any organs had not been damaged by the trauma.

Pretending to be interested in a magazine, Doc remembered the times when Marty had come to him to work as his assistant and had been ill or hurt. The teenager loved to cover up his weak points, something he had learned from his father before the timeline was altered. The old George McFly had more than once been sick, though he didn't dare take a day off of work because Biff was his boss. George had repeatedly told Marty over the years to never let people see his weak spot. Marty had echoed his father in that respect and Doc still remembered the day when Marty showed up for work sick.

Doc, having been the son of a medical doctor, knew the signs and symptoms better than the teenager did. He'd seen that Marty was slightly flushed and his voice was hoarse. He wondered how long it would take before the teen would admit to not feeling well and ask to go home, but it didn't happen. Marty soldiered on and the next day, when he looked even worse, he was on the point of collapsing before Doc had to intervene. He had admonished the boy for not being responsible for his own health and Marty had weakly replied that he was happier when he was away from his home. That saddened Doc a bit but he took care of Marty, allowing him to sleep on his couch that afternoon instead of working. Marty had admitted that he'd been up half the night with bad coughing spells and nobody had taken care of him.

So it fell to Doc to look after Marty. The teenager had been very grateful for his friend's help, as Doc even allowed him to come over at any time if things were too bad at his home. Marty had outlasted his cold, though it took place in his throat, he developed laryngitis. Doc sympathized with him but there was nothing he could do to cure it. He still let the teenager camp out on his couch if he wanted to and kept a close eye on him until he was well again.

Marty had his tonsils out when he was 15 and aside from a few hospital visits, Doc didn't see him for 2 full weeks after that. When he finally returned, Marty had lost color and weight, shocking his friend. As it turned out, Marty had sustained a bad staph infection while in the hospital and spent several days fighting it off. Doc had always been a bit worried about Marty's slight stature and build. He looked a bit small for his age but he didn't draw any attention to it.

Now, Doc fumbled with the magazine and put it aside idly, closing his eyes and sinking into a doze.

"Dr. Brown?" the surgeon shook his shoulder gently. Doc roused and looked up groggily. "Your son Andrew is out of surgery and in recovery now."

It took a minute for his latest cover story to hit home then he sat up. "How is he?"

"He's sleeping off the anesthesia right now. We'll need to hospitalize him for at least 2 days to make sure he's recovering properly."

"All right."

"We can set up a cot for you if you like, Dr. Brown."

"I would be most grateful." Doc admitted tiredly. He followed the nurse and collapsed onto the cot as soon as it was set up.

During the middle of the night, Doc woke up by the night nurse who was taking Marty's vital signs. The nurse looked over at him and gave a tolerant smile.

"Did I wake you?" she asked in a tone that implied politeness and also that she didn't care if she did or not. Doc recognized that and switched his gaze to his friend.

"How is he?"

"Doing quite well." the nurse turned her back on him and left rather rudely. Doc shrugged it off and thought to himself that there were all kinds of rude people even that far out in the future. He stood up and looked down at his sleeping friend, mentally reassuring himself that Marty was really all right.

The teenager looked much more comfortable as he slept, his features smoothed out and worry-free for the time being. Doc inwardly marveled at how his friend could look so young and innocent as he slept and smiled down at him fondly. Even though the nurse had said he was fine, Doc put a hand on his friend's brow, checking him carefully to see if there was any hint of a fever starting to develop.

There was no fever starting, due to the efficiency of the IV antibiotics doctors always put their patients on prior to surgery. Marty was not allergic to any drugs which was a relief in many ways already.

Going back to bed, Doc inwardly prayed that Marty's recovery would be trouble-free, as they'd already had enough trouble to last a lifetime.

Marty stirred in his sleep and opened up his eyes. He vaguely remembered Doc taking him to a hospital, but as soon as he'd been taken away to get an x-ray of his belly, he'd closed his eyes and blacked out. He knew he was in a hospital room, though this one was different than any one of them he'd been in before. The walls, instead of being stark white, were now multicolored. A flatscreen TV hung on the wall, a digital clock was right on top of that.

Doc was near him, asleep on a cot. Marty smiled in gratitude as his friend slept on. Doc had always been there for him and he was reassured with his friend nearby.

His throat was sore and he had no idea why. Marty would have liked a drink, but it felt like he could neither talk nor move due to the drugs he'd been given. Still, he was happy Doc was with him and was able to look out for him while he was incapacitated.

The nurse came in again, a short little woman with a face that was deeply lined like old wood. Marty supposed she would have no problem keeping an unruly patient in line and wondered why she wasn't working on the psych ward. She said nothing to him, just checked his vital signs and left. Marty suspected he had inconvenienced her just by being a patient, as she acted like there were more important things to do than look after him.

Funnily enough, Marty saw her nametag and learned her name was Mercy. Nurse Show-No-Mercy, he improvised wryly as he glanced over at Doc again.

His nose started to itch and he saw he had a tube lying underneath his nose that hooked around his ears. Wanting to remove it but daring not to in case Show-No-Mercy decided to lecture him on it, he let it be.

Relaxing back, he let himself fall back asleep again as the drugs once more pulled him under.

Several hours later, Marty came awake again to see that it was now 5 at night and Doc was sitting in the visitor's chair, flipping channels on the TV with the sound down low not to disturb Marty. The teenager smiled and stared at Doc for a long moment, willing him to look at him.

"Hey Doc," he croaked feebly.

"Marty!" Doc jumped. "How are you feeling now?"

"Sore."

"To be expected," Doc gave him a drink. "there was blood in your abdomen and they had to suction it all out and stop the bleeding. You had some internal bruising but that will clear up on its own. Drugs will help take the edge off the pain. Are you in pain now?"

"A little bit."

"I'll call the nurse."

"Doc, not the nurse!" Marty cried. "That old fart has no empathy for the wounded like me!"

Doc gave him a puzzled look. "You mean nurse Mercy? She went off duty an hour ago, Marty. You have Thomas now."

"Oh good. Nurse Show-No-Mercy left." Marty sighed. Doc chortled.

Thomas gave Marty some medicine that made him more comfortable and woozy in the head. Doc was amused by the way Marty appeared to see things and he rambled on incessantly about anything his mind turned to. The nonsensical chatter kept Doc amused for an hour or two, before Marty began to feel sleepy. The scientist suggested that he sleep and Marty did not need any other encouragement to do so.

Towards noon the next day, Marty was duly discharged with some prescription medicine to take if he was in too much pain. Doc helped him into the DeLorean and was turning on the time circuits when Marty grabbed his arm.

"We left the hoverboard in 1955!"

"Damn! We go back one minute after we left then." he programmed in the date and accelerated.


	3. Chapter 3

"Doc!" Marty swore and then gave up. He somehow managed to maneuver his friend into the backseat of the Packard and slammed the door shut after taking the keys from Doc's pocket. The teenager got into the car and drove to the mansion, his mind overloaded with Doc's message from the past. He almost missed the turnoff point and had to make a sharp turn, nearly missing the mailbox.

"All right, let's get him into the house." Marty unlocked the door and Copernicus had bounded out with a happy bark. He whined a little bit as Marty got Doc into the house and set him down on the red couch, taking off his and Doc's shoes, propping them up against the fireplace grate. He struck a match and brought a fire to life, stoking it with a few pine logs. Pulling out the letter, he strung the pages on a wire to get them to dry out, then took off his leather jacket and hung it up. Marty put Doc's bathrobe over Doc, then took the hoverboard and put it down on the floor as he sat down in the red chair. Warmed and soothed by the heat of the fireplace, Marty fell asleep.

* * *

"We may have to blast." Doc frowned as he studied the map, scratching his head as the teenager moved his rook and Copernicus nudged the queen forward. It was raining hard outside and Marty was starting to feel out of sorts a bit. He felt like he was moving in a dream to some extent, but he wasn't going to say anything about it. The prolonged exposure in the rain hadn't done him any favors and he was a little irked at himself for being so foolish in the first place. Undoubtedly it was because of the surgery he'd had previously and he knew his stamina wasn't up to snuff yet.

"So what's the plan, Doc?"

The scientist looked up at him from where he had put the map away. "I'll have to rent a tow truck, since the DeLorean won't be in any condition to drive back here. The tires will have gone through many years of dry rot and they'll crumble from the least little touch. I'll need to siphon out the gas as that stuff won't keep for very long, a few years at least..."

"So we go out tomorrow and dig it out?"

"Yes I believe so. This damned rain will let up sometime." Doc looked outside the window to see nothing but blackness and the ever present rain pummeling down. Marty stifled a wince of pain from behind his hand. He had the painkilling drug the hospital had given him and now he fumbled for it, cursing when he realized he'd left it in the DeLorean's glove compartment.

That night, Marty tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. The dog came in and offered him doggie comfort in terms of snuggling up and licking his face, but Marty was only annoyed. He picked up the volume of Dracula and started to read. When morning came, Doc was already out to bring in the rented tow truck, so Marty cozied up on the couch with the book again, but before he knew it, he was falling asleep. The teenager woke up to find a concerned looking Doc leaning over him, gently shaking his shoulder.

"Marty, do you feel all right?"

He ignored the sore throat and answered Doc, "I'm all right. I just didn't get enough sleep last night." Doc didn't look convinced but he let it go.

"All right, everything's all set. It'll take about an hour to drive out there, so let's be on our way!" Copernicus hopped into the truck as Marty followed him, wishing he had some of Doc's energy. Once in the truck and Doc was heading out of town, the teen fell asleep again.

"Marty?" Doc was shaking his shoulder again. "Don't tell me you're all right when I know you're not, kid." Marty yawned and saw the dog was sitting on his lap. They'd pulled up beside the mine and Doc was angling the tow truck to be ready to receive the DeLorean. He pulled out the cable and hung it to the adjacent rock wall near the entrance, knowing he would need to winch the car out of the entrance.

Marty blinked lazily as he got out of the truck. "I'm really all right, Doc. Biff nailed me the night of the storm and my Doc discovered that I needed surgery for it."

Doc stared for a moment as he put his helmet on, switching on the headlight. "Where were you hurt?"

"My stomach. They said I had a hemoperitowhatsis."

"A hemoperitoneum?"

"Yeah, that." Marty switched on his own headlight as they started down the shaft. "I'm all right, honestly. I just haven't got the stamina I once did."

"You'll get it back eventually," Doc reassured him. They wired up the shaft entrance and crouched behind an old tomb in the cemetery nearby. "I see no reason why you shouldn't."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Doc." Marty was feeling a bit cranky and Doc recognized it. They blew the entrance open and started on down the shaft, Doc chattering away about his favorite author and Marty wasn't really paying any attention. They found the section of the mine where the DeLorean was and Marty explained away Mr. Fusion and some of the other modifications the car had. Analyzing the repair instructions, Doc then determined it was time to take the car out of the old shaft.

"How exactly are we going to do that, Doc? Blow another hole?"

"No. This shaft is wide enough to get it out." Doc and Marty knocked the skids off gently so the DeLorean was firmly sitting on the ground. Together, they pushed it towards the entrance where Doc attached the hook and cable to the car's tow bar and began to winch it slowly with Marty in the DeLorean, steering it into the main tunnel. It was a long and frustrating process, as DeLoreans only had so-so turning radius capabilities, but they patiently fought the battle and before long, Doc had simply winched it out of the main tunnel and was loading it up into the tow truck. The tires were badly corroded due to dry rot and crumbled as soon as he touched them, but Doc was optimistic that he could fix the machine and get it going again.

* * *

"What kind of future do you call that?!" Doc got into the tow truck followed by Marty and the dog, both of them were struck with images of how 1985 Doc had met his untimely end.

"We should go to the library and try to figure this out, Doc," Marty scratched Copernicus's ears. "I gotta know."

"I know, Marty. Once we get the repair material for the DeLorean tomorrow, we'll hit the library." the scientist reassured his friend. "I'd like to know how this came to be as well."

Once they were in Doc's garage, the scientist uncovered the car and dug out the repair instructions to make a list of what he needed to buy while Marty lay down on the couch with the dog.

At one point, Doc remembered that Marty told him he had been recovering from surgery and went to check on the teenager, wondering if he'd overestimated his recovery time and pulled stitches or something to that extent. Fortunately the teen was asleep when he went into the room, Copernicus snoozing at his side, playing his role as the faithful doggie comforter. Doc smiled and pulled down the couch afghan so he could check his friend.

Despite the advances in medicine, Marty still had 2 stitches sewn into his flesh in the upper right quadrant. There was some discoloration around the edges but Doc knew that was normal. He checked for any sign of redness, irriation, swelling, purulent discharge, but found none. Marty's body hadn't reacted at all to the stitches and that was the best sign Doc could hope for. Already there was scabbing over of the wound and he knew that was another good sign. Doc gently washed away the flaking scabs, not touching the deeper ones, put an antiseptic salve over the site, then covered up the stitches with a small loose bandage.

Satisfied now, Doc went to take a nap on the armchair.

The next day, Marty and Doc went to the hardware store and a few other places, then found the library was open. Marty decided he was going back to take Doc out of 1885 and bring him home, and Doc knew that it was useless to argue. Marty was right-his older self didn't belong there at all and he did not stand in Marty's way. Knowing his fate like he did, he would have asked Marty to go and fetch him anyway.

All in one night, Doc and Marty repaired the DeLorean and it ran better than before. The futuristic altenator provided plenty of power and Doc was quite happy to discover Mr. Fusion converted household garbage into power required for the flux capacitor.

Doc insisted on taking a look at Marty before he went into the past in spite of protests. He had to humor Doc, who was insistent on it, then cautioned Marty on overdoing it or underestimating his health. Groaning, Marty reluctantly submitted to the medical exam.

* * *

"What idiot dressed you in that outfit?" Doc scrutinized Marty's clothes as the teenager hobbled beside him to the livery barn where the scientist now lived.

"You did." Marty clasped his friend's shoulder as they went inside. Getting cleaned up, Marty put on some clothes borrowed from Doc and washed up. He'd banged up his right knee some from crashing into the pile of skids workmen had been using to fix a storefront, and he was staying off his leg as much as possible.

Later on in the day, Doc was shoeing horses and Marty, though sitting down on a couch with his leg propped up on an ottoman, was watching Doc with interest. Although he held up a newspaper in one hand, he was frequently watching Doc. It didn't seem right to him, his friend the scientist who liked to tinker with circuit boards and microchips, to be shoeing horses. Now as he watched Doc, he found it almost impossible to get his mind wrapped around the whole concept.

First off, Doc would bring out the horse, in this case a gelding, and he would use very tough wooden stocks that had been anchored deeply in the ground by the previous blacksmith to put the horse's hoof into. He would lower the stock down so the hoof was sticking out, then with a hammer claw, he would pull out the nails used to keep the shoe in place. He tossed the old shoe into an old steel pail which he would recycle and make new shoes with later on, then Doc would stoke up a blast furnace and melt new iron ingots until they were pliable enough to shape. Using a variety of metal tools, he would shape the iron bar into a horseshoe and nail it onto the gelding's hooves.

That night after Doc shoed about 4 horses for his clients, he and Marty went to the Palace Saloon to have supper. The bartender and the local barflies remarked on Marty's new clothes and rugged looking boots, to which he would nod politely and say nothing else.

"So how is your knee doing now, Marty?" coming in that night after supper, Doc hung up his hat and Marty ambled over to the couch, flexing his sore muscle gingerly.

"Feels more flexible now, Doc."

"Good." Doc palpated it. "The swelling is gone and you might be a little stiff tomorrow, but that's all."

"I'm glad for all that. Seems like I really suffer whenever you time travel, Doc." he joked.

"That reminds me, your surgery-"

"It's fine, Doc. Your other self looked at me and said I was fine."

"Oh."

"You trust yourself, don't you, Doc?" Marty was trying not to giggle. The scientist turned farrier gave him an exasperated look.

* * *

"So what do we do?" Marty adjusted his hat and appraised himself in the mirror for a moment, admiring it.

Doc pulled on his duster and beckoned to Marty. "I haven't got any clients coming in today so we go out to the cave and bring back the DeLorean."

"How exactly? We haven't got a tow truck here this time?" deja vu was starting to envelope the teen.

"We have horses, Marty!" Doc opened up the door to the fenced in grazing area and whistled. "Where do you think the term 'horsepower' was coined?"

"Coined?" Marty raised an eyebrow.

"Come on!" Doc pulled 4 horses off the grazing field and brought along a 2 horse harness and rigged it so that the car's weight would be evenly distributed between the horses.

"Doc, I don't know how to ride." Marty stroked a piebald while a stallion nudged his hand jealously, looking for attention. Doc taught him the basics of saddling up a horse, then gave him some simple instructions to follow. Once Marty was confident enough, they went across the desert landscape, tracking down the DeLorean in the cave. As if in greeting, the big black bear came out and snarled, but Doc scared him off with a wild shot.

The scientist grabbed a small lightweight chain and hooked it to the horses' harness in the center, securing it down with an iron lynch pin, then he went underneath the DeLorean, found the tow bar, and fastened the iron caribbena to the tow bar carefully. Marty watched him, stroking the stallion's mane as Doc clambered out and strapped the car cover on.

Both of them mounted their horses and beckoned to the team, which obediently pulled the car out of the cave. It took about 2 hours going at a medium pace across the plains, but eventually they got it into the barn. Doc and Marty untethered the horses, allowing them back into the grazing paddock and giving them plenty of fresh water to drink. Marty laughed as the piebald and the others dropped and rolled to get rid of the harness feeling on their backs. A Morgan mare snorted at the stallion and both began to engage in play fighting.

"Whoa Doc, I'm all done in for tonight." Marty yawned as he took off his boots.

"Me too, Marty." he washed the dirt off his face and undressed.

* * *

Over the next few days, upon discovering that Doc had volunteered to bring in the new schoolteacher, he and Marty went off to the plains with several teams of horses to try to get the DeLorean up to speed, but the horses couldn't do it. They tried liquor in substitute of gas, the car spit out the fuel injection system.

"Doc, why don't we just use the DeLorean in the mine and get that running?"

"Marty, if we do that, you'd never be able to come back here!" Doc scolded. "Fuel injection systems weren't very common in the fifties anyway and it wouldn't work!"

"Even so-"

"No, Marty. I would still need specialized tools to transplant the system from one car into another. Even after I got it done and we do this again, it'll end us right back where we started! No, we have better chances somewhere else."

Marty still looked ready to argue his point but Doc hushed him up. "You forget, Marty, that fuel injection systems in the fifties were a lot bigger and more cumbersome and my counterpart would never be able to fit a fifties system into an eighties sportscar."

"Oh." Marty let it go.

* * *

"They think about it all the time." Marty fastened on the gunbelt and revolver, staring after Seamus and Maggie. He'd been worried about Doc, since his mind didn't seem to be able to concentrate on anything else but Clara since he accidentally met her. Still, Doc had been in the shop part of the barn the past two nights, ironing down the plan for them to get home and creating something he wasn't telling Marty about just yet. Marty had learned to like some of the facets about living in the west, the care of horses and livestock, the friendliness of the people, and the general comradeship shared by everyone.

Feeling like he wanted some solitude, Marty broke away from his well wishers and mounted his horse, going on the outskirts of town to watch the moon rise. He stayed out for 2 hours, contemplating his life and time traveling, then went back to the livery where Doc hadn't come home yet.

Taking the saddle off his horse, he rubbed the Morgan mare down and fed her, grinning as she teased him by nudging her head under his arm, asking for a scratch. He obliged her, then went into the bedroom part of the house adjacent. If it hadn't been for him, Marty knew that Doc would have been shot and slowly died on Monday. He'd been wondering about that part of his friend's fate, and now he knew.

Yawning and getting into bed, Marty couldn't sleep for a long time.

* * *

"You've gotta do what you've gotta do. And I've gotta do what I've gotta do." Doc dismissed Marty by walking away, thinking of Marty's accident in the future. He'd been racing Needles, a local tough guy, when he hit a Rolls Royce at high speed and almost died. The truck he'd gotten was a write off and Doc had been quite devastated to hear of the accident. From what he'd been able to piece together, he'd been working at his lab when Marty's mother called and told Doc that Marty wasn't coming in that day. Doc imagined his reaction would be little more than a "Great scott!" and a "What can I do?"

Marty's hand was broken from the accident and through support from his family and Jennifer, he'd begun to put his life back together. His hand had healed but it was never what it had been pre-accident, and Marty had given up on his music. The teen had gone down into a depression that his mother insisted that he get help for. Doc knew from the newspaper archives that Marty had been all right, yet nothing had been said about his accident from a personal point of view. Doc needed more information, so he'd hunted down Jennifer and once she got over her initial shock of seeing Doc again, she'd confided to him everything that had happened since.

"Marty was never the same since that day, Doc," she'd told him, looking older than her years. "he'd get angry sometimes and wouldn't tell anyone what he was thinking. His mom made him see a shrink and an anger management specialist and he improved, but he wasn't the same after that. It was like he'd lost a part of himself."

"I can imagine," Doc agreed. "did he see me at all?"

"Yes. You were pretty distraught over the whole mess. Marty was in a coma for a little while and when he was starting to wake up, he'd say your name."

Doc paled up. "It's OK, Doc. It's in the past now, but he changed. He gave up on music, something you know he lived and breathed for his whole life. I married him and we have two kids, but he's still not the same person I knew before the crash."

"I have no doubt, Jennifer." Doc said slowly as he stood up.

Her hand caught his as he moved towards the door. The future Marty would be arriving soon and he didn't want to see him. Doc turned and looked at Jennifer, whose eyes were flooding up with unshed tears. "Please change his future, Doc," she begged. "he deserves so much more than what he has."

"I will do it, Jennifer." he put his hand on hers and smiled at her kindly. "If I didn't care so much for Marty, do you think I'd be here right now?"

She smiled thinly. "You two always were such great friends. I'm glad he has you, Doc."

"Me too." Doc didn't want to do it, but he zapped her with his sleep inducer to make her think it was all a dream.

Putting that memory out of his mind, Doc walked into the livery where he shoed several horses and told his clientele that he was leaving town. When the clients had left, Marty came back in from his wandering and silently helped Doc out with hitching up the horses and attaching them to the DeLorean again. They rode out to the starting point of their plan and spent most of the day putting the DeLorean on the rails. Doc stood up the tires in a straight line on one side as Marty checked the hoverboard.

When twilight came, neither having said much to the other, as their minds had been preoccupied with what they had spoken about that morning. Doc wired the new gauge on the dashboard, putting it in a custom designed holder for it and checked the time circuits.

Marty finished what he was working on and Doc told him the truth about what he was thinking on. He knew Marty's response was going to be less than positive.

"There's no denying it. I'm in love with Clara."

"Oh, Doc!" Marty grunted, standing up. "We don't belong here! Neither one of us! It could still be you who gets shot tomorrow!" he fished out the photograph he had taken and flashed it at Doc. "This tombstone can still be in your future!"

Doc still looked like he was in a trance. "Marty," he took the photograph. "the future isn't written. I have to live my life the way I believe is right. In my heart."

Marty gulped as he picked up the lantern. "Doc, you're a scientist. You always tell me, what's the right thing to do up here?" he tapped his forehead.

Doc blinked. "You're right, Marty." his friend's sigh of relief was evident as he threw the switch. The DeLorean backed onto the rails with a small amount of screeching.

"Wow, that worked great." Marty walked over to inspect the time machine as Doc said something that he didn't quite catch. "Look Doc, maybe we should just... I don't know, maybe we should just take Clara with us."

Doc turned to him. "To the future? She'd never understand. You reminded me Marty, I'm a scientist so I must be scientific about this. We will proceed as planned and as soon as we get back to 1985, we will destroy this infernal machine. Traveling through time has become much too painful." there was an edge to Doc's voice that Marty recognized. It was longing for Clara, like forbidden fruit he knew he couldn't have but wanted it anyway. Marty chose to wisely leave Doc be and fell asleep as soon as he'd hit the bedroll.

The scientist couldn't sleep, twiddling the little trinket Clara had given him the night before. It was about 11 when he decided to go and be honest with her, which didn't end well. Doc finished the night at the saloon, rabbiting on about the future with the local barflies until Marty came in to get him Monday morning.

* * *

After Doc left in his new time train, Marty and Jennifer picked up the parts of the DeLorean and slung them in the back of Marty's new truck. They went off to the dump and tossed the car parts into a mountain of car trash, keeping the time components hidden. Marty took the flux and the time circuits, stashed them under his bed and forgot about them.

Two weeks later, Marty was ill in bed, having picked up a bad cold from one of his bandmembers that week. His pile of correspondence was laying in an untidy heap at the foot of his bed when he picked up a letter from a record label. Excitedly he combed through it, reading the cherished word accepted at the very bottom. He whooped and cheered, then his throat decided to remind him it was in a fragile state and he coughed loudly for a few minutes. His mother came in to administer to him, gave him medicine and told him to go to sleep.

Late that night there was a constant knocking against his window which woke him up. Marty groaned, feeling the first flush of a fever come to aggravate his condition. He unlocked the sash and opened up the window, seeing Doc standing outside.

"Marty!"

"Hey Doc," Marty said raspily amid a dry cough. The scientist frowned in concern.

"Marty, are you all right?"

"I'm sick, Doc. I'm not all right." he winced as his throat flared up a bit.

"I'm sorry Marty, I didn't know you were sick."

"It's all right, Doc. What did you want?"

"I came by to let you know that Clara and my family will be moving here! I'll stop by next week to see if you feel up to helping us fix up the farmhouse."

"Sure thing, Doc."

"Marty! Feel better soon!" Doc waved and left the yard. Marty shut the window and hustled back to bed.

* * *

END


End file.
